ICSE Schools To Teach Harry Potter, Tintin, Hobbit As Part Of Syllabus

English literature classes in ICSE schools just became more fun for Class III to Class VIII. Students at schools affiliated to the CISCE board will be now studying Harry Potter, Agatha Christie's novels, 'The Hobbit' and Feluda.

Syllabus of classes from III to VIII will include graphic novels of Asterix, Tintin, American cartoonist Art Spiegel man's Holocaust saga 'Maus' among other books.

This is a huge leap from the Shakespeare literature students are used to. This amazing syllabi will be implemented for junior and middle school students as part of their English literature syllabus starting from the academic year 2017-18.

The books that will be introduced are graphic novels like Amar Chitra Katha, Tintin, Asterix comics and Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' will be a part of the syllabus from class 3 to class 8.

Apart from the fictions, students will also be learning aautobiographies of Anne Frank, Malala Yusufazai, APJ Abdul Kalam are also some new additions, with Enid Blyton's Noddy series, for the lower classes.

This upgrade in syllabus comes as a happy change as the board is looking towards modernisation of the international curriculum and making it child-centered.

ISCE chief executive and secretary, Gerry Arathoon, was quoted, "Earlier, we were preparing curriculum for class IX till XII. But now with having our own syllabus right from pre-school will ultimately help students to prepare for ICSE examinations in a better way. Now, students will be capable of working towards the board examinations much before."

If some schools fail to introduce the recommended texts in the coming academic session, they would be granted a year's extension, he added.

ICSE School Syllabus Just Got More Interesting!

The council already has syllabus books for Class IX to XII. Till now, many ICSE schools followed the NCERT syllabus for classes I to VIII while some others preferred a syllabus framed by the Inter State Board of Anglo Indian Education.

Besides prescribing the texts, the proposed curriculum stipulates that nursery students must spend 800 instructional hours per year in school.

Similarly, students from Classes I to V must receive 900 hours of instruction every year in school and those in classes VI to VIII, 1000 hours of instruction respectively.